2015 Nurburgring 24 Hours: Hour 3 Update

Hubert Haupt leads the 2015 ADAC Nurburgring 24 Hours of Black Falcon after three hours, having taken the lead with an outbraking move at the chicane on the Grand Prix track of the Nurburgring.

The Mercedes team became front runners once the first round of pitstops had been completed, the green #5 leading from the #26 BMW of BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS. However, their placing at the front of the race was a little artificial, the team among the first to be penalised for not meeting the minimum pitstop time dictated by the regulations. The time penalty was served during their next stop, but the team worked their way back up to the front, Haupt taking the lead back off the #26 Z4 in the first part of lap 19. 20 laps were in the books as the clocks past 7pm local time (6pm UK).

As well as the #5 another car that came to the fore as a shower dampened down the Nordschleife for a time was the Frikadelli Racing Team Porsche, the #30 leading three laps and reaching the end of the third hour in third place. The #19 BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert car was fourth with the #1 Audi Sport Team Phoenix the best of the Audi R8, the four ringed marque yet to announce their authority at the very front of the race.

They are, however, still going unlike several other front running teams.

The most notable team to find trouble was the #20 Schubert team that led the way early on.

Claudia Hurtgen lost control of the Huawei sponsored car in the rain at Pflanzgarten, damaging the right-front of the car, the wheel locked as she brought the car back to the pits after the accident while running in seventh overall. The car remained in the pits at the end of the 3rd hour, having lost 13 laps to the race lead.

More mysterious was the incident that sidelined the #85 Bentley Motors Ltd of Guy Smith which suffered left-front damage and stopped in the Quiddelbacher Hohe area of the circuit. The #23 ROWE Racing Mercedes was given some racer tape sticking plasters in the pits at the end of the relevant lap but it was Wolf Henzler in the Falken Motorsports Porsche that was tabbed as the one who dealt the blow to the British Racing Green Continental GT3. The Bentley was last seen being towed off the track, the team hoping to recover the car back to the pits to start repairing the damage.

The drama was not only on the track but in the pits too. The #28 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi crew suffered a flash fire at their first refuelling stop. The flames were quickly quashed, the driver climbing back aboard. The team were running ninth overall after three hours.

All but two places in the top 20 were filled by GT3 cars, only the #92 Manthey Racing Porsche at the head of the SP7 class in 20th and the #9 Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG oo3c in 17th able to break into the bracket.